Neil Peart, Dead at 67? Hard to believe!

Go to page

Well-Known Member

Joined

Jan 13, 2020

Messages

62

Reaction score

5

Neil Peart was always merely described as one of the very best drummers of all time, an inspiration... Not accurate, and not adequate: for example, to describe Neil Peart as one the best drummers means he was merely a player, as in a drummer in a school band like most school band members, nearly all school band members, with below average ability... until later, as many do improve as they continue to practice. To describe the late, great Neil Peart as a performer, or a percussionist is, at best, to describe a player-then-better-than-player, a performer to merely perform Music written by others. Neil Peart Composed AND Performed his own drum parts and percussion parts (yes, tuned percussion parts). Neil Peart was no less than a Musician, a Soloist, an Arranger, and a Composer, and multi-instrumentalist Solosite with full respect for Traditional- and Tradition of "Classical" Music with his own New Variations and all-new Traditional "Classical"-to-Modern Percussion instruments - yes, multiple Percussion instruments - Compositions for the original Music of RUSH.

I remember so many of his interviews in Music Magazines, his personal comments in so many videos... for all of his insight, despite his own doubts, ironic his dissatisfaction with mankind not being kind... his song lyrics in Manhattan Project: "...a weapon that would settle the score/Whoever found it first/would be sure to do their worst/They always had before..." For all of his own faults, his own insecurities, he was aware of Fear in The Human Condition, of Hypocrisy, of Intolerance, his lyrics from Witch Hunt "...ignorance and prejudice and fear walk hand in hand...", and aware of politically incorrect speech written for official events by technical writers, in fact, Human Rights Violators themselves... and the U.S. found itself removed from The Human Rights Commission of The United Nations, to say the least, in recent years, as we remember from his lyrics and song Countdown, the tone of voice of the announcer gives the hypocrisy away, along the lines of "you can't have freedom for free", "the illusion of integrity". With his insight, Neil Peart could have been a Philosopher, and a Philosophy Professor. Ironic was his belief he was willing to pay the ultimate price and sacrifice for his fortune and fame, perhaps not ironic, probably his awareness of his "...beating down the multitude...", and, was, in fact, set in his ways as a working class man, as he described himself, yet let nothing stop him from living his life as he wanted, not as arranged by others, finally succeeding during his later, and last, years, until his ultimate end. He did donate at least six figure, if not seven figure, amounts of money to Food Banks. The man had compassion, always did, yet you could clearly see by the look on his face in so many of his pictures (when he was anywhere near any of his live performances from Permanent Waves through Counterparts, then beyond "whatever the hopeless may say" until the end of his days) he was more than a little angry at the ignorant masses, probably because he knew they knew better (after all, they were not illiterate), therefore they had no excuse to be ignorant and intolerant. I was never swept away by, never lost, neither in moment, not even by the crowd, and never lived my life abstracted because I was never distracted. Neil Peart repeatedly warned, with his lyrics, of the consequences of ignorance and intolerance, especially of feigned ignorance as an excuse for intolerance: "...the trees are all kept equal by hatchet, axe, and saw...". The present decline of Society, Civility, and Civilization... Civilisation Worldwide speaks for itself in the News Headlines each and every day: a Sorry, and Sad, State of Affairs... an ironic twist of fate: Neil Peart, with strength, speed, and stamina beyond professional athletes, beyond olympic athletes (his very, very long bicycle and motorcycle trips), recovered 100% from his ailments by 2005 - 2015 (as we see in his instructional, demo, studio videos... up until his very last concert performance in L.A. with RUSH (2015), he was no longer bandaged, and running about with a smile on his face (review his online last concert performance finale with RUSH), and from his pictures of his bicycling and motorcycling thousands of miles at a time) ended up with brain cancer....

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

I remember so many of his interviews in Music Magazines, his personal comments in so many videos... for all of his insight, despite his own doubts, ironic his dissatisfaction with mankind not being kind... his song lyrics in Manhattan Project: "...a weapon that would settle the score/Whoever found it first/would be sure to do their worst/They always had before..." For all of his own faults, his own insecurities, he was aware of Fear in The Human Condition, of Hypocrisy, of Intolerance, his lyrics from Witch Hunt "...ignorance and prejudice and fear walk hand in hand...", and aware of politically incorrect speech written for official events by technical writers, in fact, Human Rights Violators themselves... and the U.S. found itself removed from The Human Rights Commission of The United Nations, to say the least, in recent years, as we remember from his lyrics and song Countdown, the tone of voice of the announcer gives the hypocrisy away, along the lines of "you can't have freedom for free", "the illusion of integrity". With his insight, Neil Peart could have been a Philosopher, and a Philosophy Professor. Ironic was his belief he was willing to pay the ultimate price and sacrifice for his fortune and fame, perhaps not ironic, probably his awareness of his "...beating down the multitude...", and, was, in fact, set in his ways as a working class man, as he described himself, yet let nothing stop him from living his life as he wanted, not as arranged by others, finally succeeding during his later, and last, years, until his ultimate end. He did donate at least six figure, if not seven figure, amounts of money to Food Banks. The man had compassion, always did, yet you could clearly see by the look on his face in so many of his pictures (when he was anywhere near any of his live performances from Permanent Waves through Counterparts, then beyond "whatever the hopeless may say" until the end of his days) he was more than a little angry at the ignorant masses, probably because he knew they knew better (after all, they were not illiterate), therefore they had no excuse to be ignorant and intolerant. I was never swept away by, never lost, neither in moment, not even by the crowd, and never lived my life abstracted because I was never distracted. Neil Peart repeatedly warned, with his lyrics, of the consequences of ignorance and intolerance, especially of feigned ignorance as an excuse for intolerance: "...the trees are all kept equal by hatchet, axe, and saw...". The present decline of Society, Civility, and Civilization... Civilisation Worldwide speaks for itself in the News Headlines each and every day: a Sorry, and Sad, State of Affairs... an ironic twist of fate: Neil Peart, with strength, speed, and stamina beyond professional athletes, beyond olympic athletes (his very, very long bicycle and motorcycle trips), recovered 100% from his ailments by 2005 - 2015 (as we see in his instructional, demo, studio videos... up until his very last concert performance in L.A. with RUSH (2015), he was no longer bandaged, and running about with a smile on his face (review his online last concert performance finale with RUSH), and from his pictures of his bicycling and motorcycling thousands of miles at a time) ended up with brain cancer....

Attachments

Well-Known Member

This is where it all started for me, the Distant Early Warning video in 1984. T'was the summer between 6th and 7th grade when I saw this and that moment is seared in my memory. What is this music? Who are these guys? Look at those big, red Tamas! The next day I got on my bike, cruised the neighborhood asking if anyone had this and one of my friend's older sisters had a "Monsters of Metal" cassette. One of those compilations with Van Halen, The Scorpions, etc. Cassette in hand, I went to my drums and that was it, lifelong fan!

Well-Known Member

Joined

Jan 13, 2020

Messages

62

Reaction score

5

When I was in my early adolescence in 1976, I had already long been listening to the biggest acts of the 1960s-1970s, radio, record singles, record albums... my schoolmates were into Prog Rock, one with RUSH All The World's A Stage... the album cover was, and still is, AWESOME! When I started high school, someone did a rendering of the number 2112 in a public place, on city property... the palindrome catches your attention... then, during Spring of my Junior Year in High School, while I was studying for the State Chemistry Regents Exam, with my books cracked open... textbook, notebook, Barron's Study book, those plastic study pages for your binder... I bought over a dozen of those plastic study pages, 2-3 for most school study subjects, 1 for some school study subjects... in my bedroom... I was studying at my desk, listening to THE NYC Rock Station on my clock radio on my desk... The Spirit of Radio came on... the opening guitar part... the drums... the ride cymbal part... the Geddy Lee vocals... AWESOME alert! ...and, yes, in those days, the NYC DJs played songs over and over, sometimes the same song 2-3 times, once after another and another, before playing another song... DJs played whole album sides... whole albums... aired interviews with Band Members between the songs of new albums... during the same time, at the end of my Junior Year in High School, I received recommendations to Juilliard and The Manhattan School of Music with local 802 Musicians Union sponsorship for Percussion and Piano (we were already passed formal training for Performance and Orchestral and Choral Composition on- and with only four Steinways at the High School, and ready to start to prepare Performances for Auditions. There are hundreds of Steinways at Juilliard! Anyway, I ended up with a Business Major (my Family insisted), then MBA recommendations for the Columbia University MBA Program from a Columbia Ph. D.! I finished with my undergraduate Degree, and my review of the 300+ Compositions of The "Classical" Music Repertory until my 30th Year in Lincoln Center. These days, I still write online about Music Theory and Composition and New Music Theory and Composition, and Compose Perform my own Music, mostly New "Classical" Music, for my webpages referenced in my online forum lectures. I submit new Virtual Studio Technology designs for improvements and new programs to THE Music Software programmers after I started buying, and they gave me, and give me, evaluation copies of the number 1 Music Software programs: Vienna Symphonic Library at vsl.co.at, Native Instruments, ProjectSAM, Orchestral Tools, and others. Two sent me professional programming career offers, official employment listings by E-Mail, for professional programming positions, and for Research and Development Management. As you probably realize from my writing above, I am older... even when I was younger, 12 hours a day 6 days a week (accountants, medical interns, most professional positions) with my Degree for Private Sector employment did not interest me. As you probably realize, the biggest businesses on the stock exchanges often barter land, equipment, stock... Did you know over 25 years ago small town and rural county lawyers earned $40 grand from public program funding to defend a client for less than 15 minutes for a minor offense, like a traffic violation?! They did better than Rock Stars! They represented an average of 3 clients a day, often more! I know one personally! He came from Canada, and sent his Son to a Canadian University! When I was in High School, RUSH really was playing approximately 200 days a year, the concert tickets were $6.00, then $12.00, then $18.00... then increased very quickly to $50.00... then higher... I went to the Moving Pictures concert at the Meadowlands Arena, my first RUSH show (of three albums), and Geddy announced RUSH was going to retire! The crowd booed, and I started to laugh... I realized they probably had at least a few million dollars each from touring up until then... in those days, the act was paid 90% of the ticket price from ticket sales at the gate, or they would not perform, and report to the media they were not paid! Ticketron Ticketmaster, in those days, both, not separate, very quickly destroyed the concert scene: if you remember, RUSH dropped to only 1 night at one venue in- and around NYC, sometimes 1 night at each of two venues, because of Ticketron Ticketmaster electronic ticket sales (the acts did not receive 90%). After The Year 2000, RUSH did better by playing the bigger indoor AND outdoor open concerts to crowds of up to 60,000 at a time (RUSH at Saratoga, NY, Rio de Janeiro... and many other acts performed at such vast venues)! In 2007, I suggested Rock and Roll Concerts at NASCAR Tracks because they seat up to- and over 150,000! 3-4 1-night shows each year, and you are wealthy, even at the occasional $12.00/Ticket big Rock Stars performed for after the Year 2000! RUSH never performed like they did in Canada, from All The World's A Stage, to Signals... the Tom Sawyer envelope sound of the synth really stunned you, you can probably find the performance online at youtube.com! These days, the RUSH Members and Management, at least represented by their long-time Managers, could launch a streaming Netflix, perhaps any one or number of THE biggest commercial streaming networks, RUSH series of RUSH documentaries, music videos, concert videos... from their vault... and the biggest official broadcasts of RUSH songs, videos... from archives... longer than a miniseries, yet shorter than a series, like many cable tv network produced comedy mini-series, many with 6-12 episodes for 2-3 seasons... ! MTV used to do movie marathons! The RUSH Marathon!